Saturday, July 16, 2016

The Elusive Ideal of Political Reconciliation

By Rudy Barnes, Jr.

Racial and religious anger continues
to polarize our politics. Politicians
have long used “hot button” issues to motivate their constituents with anger,
and unfortunately it has often worked. The
cumulative effect has made partisan politics a dysfunctional process that doesn’t
provide satisfactory choices for voters.
Few are happy with the choices they have for President.

If we don’t expunge anger from our
politics it will corrupt and undermine our democracy. It happened in the Civil War of the 1860s and
to a lesser degree in the civil rights revolution in the 1960s. The 18th century English sage
Edmund Burke warned Americans that in a democracy we would forge our own shackles, and Pogo the Possum, a popular cartoon
character of my generation, affirmed Burke when he observed that we have met the enemy and it is us.

In a democracy we shape our own
government. It is a reflection of our national
morality, for better or for worse—and lately it’s been for the worse. Partisan politics have become so divisive and
acrimonious that they threaten political stability. To avoid forging our own shackles we must promote
a politics of reconciliation and restore legitimacy to our political process.

Religion is the primary source of
our standards of legitimacy, but there is no mention of democracy, human rights
or the secular rule of law in the ancient scriptures. Those concepts were irrelevant in ancient
times. For moral guidance on political
issues today we have to go to the
greatest commandment as a common word
of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. It requires that we love God and love our
neighbors as we love ourselves.

The love command requires that we first
provide a rule of law that protects our individual rights and that also provides
for the common good, and balancing those two objectives is a continuing
challenge in our democracy. Second, we
must protect people from those who would do them harm, and that requires law
enforcement at home and military operations overseas. Both security functions require the use of
lethal force, and limits on the use of such force.

Providing the essential functions of
government raises contentious issues that require a politics of
reconciliation. It doesn’t require
political unity, but it does require a willingness to debate public issues in a
civil and respectful manner and to compromise on important issues to avoid
gridlock. But don’t expect Republicans or Democrats to support such a
concept. Our two-party system is by
nature divisive and favors an “us versus them” partisan dichotomy.

Both parties have a vested interest
in maintaining a divided electorate with ”hot button” partisan issues that promote
special interest politics divided along partisan lines. Partisan politics is about gaining and
maintaining political power, not about doing what is best for the country; and
unfortunately, the public seems to have acquiesced to such partisan
polarization.

A politics of reconciliation is
based on the moral imperative of faith to love God and our neighbors as
ourselves—and that includes those of other races and religions. But many believers are reluctant to consider such
matters of faith with their politics, even though there is no reason or
requirement to separate religion from politics and every reason to relate the
two. The so-called separation of church and state in the First Amendment to our
Constitution only prohibits government from “...establishing any religion or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The Civil War was the tragic result
of distorted religious and political beliefs trumping (no pun intended)
reconciliation, and 100 years later in a separate but equal South racism again blocked
justice. While a measure of political
reconciliation allowed passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, racial hatred and anger have continued ever
since, and once again we are experiencing deteriorating racial relations that threaten
our political stability with racial violence.

Like race, religious differences between
Christians and Muslims have created hate and violence that require
reconciliation. Religious institutions
should be leading the way toward interfaith reconciliation, but they aren’t
doing that. Most Christians and Muslims are
exclusivist in their beliefs and resist religious reconciliation, and that has
fostered religious polarization that is aiding and abetting radical Islamist
terrorism at home and abroad.

God’s will is that all humanity be
reconciled and redeemed, while Satan’s will is to divide and conquer. Unfortunately, Satan does a convincing
imitation of God in the church, mosque and in politics, and seems to be ahead
of God in the polls. Political
reconciliation may seem an elusive ideal in today’s divisive political
environment, but a politics of reconciliation is necessary to keep Satan from giving
God a bad name and corrupting our democracy.